In a continuing effort to improve the quality of shipping fruits, I, the inventor, typically hybridize a large number of peach, nectarine, plum, apricot, and cherry seedlings each year. I also grow a lesser number of open pollinated seeds of each of these fruits, usually to capture recessive traits. The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of peach tree, which has been denominated varietally as ‘Princess Time’.
The present variety was hybridized by me in 2001 as a first generation cross using ‘1P1152’ (unpatented) nectarine as the selected seed parent and an unnamed low chill peach as the selected pollen parent. I used embryo rescue techniques to germinate the seeds from the fruit of this cross, grew them as seedlings on their own root in my greenhouse, and upon reaching dormancy transplanted them to a cultivated area of my experimental orchard located near Le Grand, Calif., in Merced County (San Joaquin Valley). During the fruit evaluation season of 2004 I selected the present variety as a single tree from the group of seedlings described above. Subsequent to origination of the present variety of nectarine tree, I asexually reproduced it by budding and grafting in the experimental orchard described above, and such reproduction of plant and fruit characteristics were true to the original plant in all respects. The reproduction of the variety included the use of ‘Nemaguard’ (unpatented) rootstock upon which the present variety was compatible and true to type.
The present variety is similar to ‘Crimson Lady’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 7,953) peach by producing peaches that are firm, yellow in flesh color, mostly red in skin color, and ripen in early June, but is distinguished therefrom by requiring less chilling hours, by blooming in the early season, and by producing fruit that is larger in size, melting instead of non-melting in texture, and that has a more traditional peach flavor.